The whole world has PTSD,
brought about by watching
far too much TV.
Normal people becoming
neurotic or psychotic
by all the "Breaking  News".

Talking heads spewing fearful
endless chapters of dread,
all with their own ax to grind
into our heads, day after day
after day until we want to scream.
Real news or fake, impossible
to know the difference.

A political landscape strewn with
landmines of division and hate.
Melting Ice, and adverse weather,
hurricanes and tornadoes devastate
and forest fires burn, as racists and
terrorists abound at every turn,
and crazy's with military weapons
killing us for sport, just to make
the nightly news, as our nation's
infrastructures crumble into ruins,
all "Breaking News day and night",
while we and the world choke and
quiver from an excessive Carb diet
of information overload, trying to
sleep bathed in bad dreams, laced
with too many strong doses of PTSD.

Seeping through
freedom with just a blink of an eye
wipsing through the air
up into the sky
becoming one with the clouds above

Birds circling around the
invisible aura of light
that this universe beholds

Enchanted by this lullaby
of simplicity
it soothes my core
in knowing it's all right
to be where I am right now

One leaf at a time
we'll turn it
at our own pace

Reminding ourselves
that we aren't alone

If we must worship a Deity,
we need look no further
than the mighty mountains
around us, the glorious deep
abiding oceans that surround
us, the nurturing forests of green
that provide the very air we breath.

Our mother Earth is the GOD
we seek, from her all life, hope
and blessings flow and repeat.

WALK AWAY

like a spring snow, passing over our heads, burying us deep
within whose depths, it was hard to see, without knowing
for sure, the feelings we had in mind, precious but hard to keep

here we were, ready to succumb, while seeking so much more
It passed us by time and again, unable to see, what the heart was for

whether right or wrong, both our feelings were ignored, for awhile
tossing them aside, exaggerated, justified, or simply nullified

should I, would she, just walk away this time, for all that we know
or take one step back, to being worthwhile, make a flame grow

should I, will she, could we, just stop, taking a page from fate
reconsidering it all, to make it better, fix it before it breaks
so that we can go forward and move beyond our love stalemate

be it a mistake, misunderstanding, or else the consequence
of a heart, figuring out what it needs, whether fight or flee
left up to happenstance, it never crossed our minds, to walk away

we fought our way back, trying to survive, against the tide
like a sea storm swelling, the ebb and flow, in and out
searching the moon and stars, struggling, till we got it right

now with eyes wide, and our love where it belongs, we know the score,
letting the heavens fully align, to be our guide, from behind closed doors

be it a mistake, misunderstanding, or else the consequence
of a heart, figuring out what it needs, whether fight or flee
left up to happenstance, it never crossed our minds, to walk away

By Michael Perry